Engadget RSS Feedhttps://www.engadget.com/tag/40nm/rss.xml
https://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif?cachebust=trueEngadget RSS Feedhttps://www.engadget.com/tag/40nm/rss.xml
en-usEngadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronicsCopyright 2017 AOL Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only.https://www.engadget.com/2011/09/26/broadcom-unveils-smaller-more-power-efficient-40nm-nfc-chips/https://www.engadget.com/2011/09/26/broadcom-unveils-smaller-more-power-efficient-40nm-nfc-chips/https://www.engadget.com/2011/09/26/broadcom-unveils-smaller-more-power-efficient-40nm-nfc-chips/#comments

Broadcom is really throwing its weight behind this whole NFC thing. Its new family of BCM2079x chips have moved to a 40nm manufacturing process which cuts power use by 90-percent and board size by 40-percent. Broadcom claims they're the smallest and most power efficient NFC chips on the market -- and we're not in any position to refute that assertion. The company's Maestro tools have also been upgraded to let their NFC chips speak to a device's Bluetooth and WiFi radios. This could be used to quickly pair with other gadgets using Bluetooth or stream media to a connected television. For more details check out the PR after the break.
]]>
40nmbcm2079xbroadcomnfcMon, 26 Sep 2011 08:03:00 -040021|20066211https://www.engadget.com/2011/04/05/radeon-hd-6790-sneaks-in-at-under-150-leaves-reviewers-wanting/https://www.engadget.com/2011/04/05/radeon-hd-6790-sneaks-in-at-under-150-leaves-reviewers-wanting/https://www.engadget.com/2011/04/05/radeon-hd-6790-sneaks-in-at-under-150-leaves-reviewers-wanting/#comments

As sure as snow in winter or sun in summer, AMD has yet another refresh to its graphics card portfolio this spring. The Radeon HD 6790 is only a couple of misplaced digits away from the far more illustrious HD 6970, but you should be able to tell the two apart by another, altogether more significant spec: the new mid-tier card retails at $149. Predictably, its performance offers no threat to AMD's single-GPU flagship, but the 6790's 840MHz graphics and shader clock speeds plus 1GB of GDDR5 running at an effective 4.2GHz data rate don't seem like anything to sniff at either. Reviewers agreed that it's AMD's slightly delayed answer to NVIDIA's GTX 460, and with the latter card exiting retail availability to make room for the (oddly enough) less powerful GTX 550 Ti, AMD's new solution looks set to be the better choice at the shared $149 price point. Alas, being limited to 800 Stream processors and 16 ROPs does expose the HD 6790 to being cannibalized by AMD's own Radeon HD 6850 (which can be had for sub-$150 if you're tolerant of rebates) and that turns out to be exactly what happens. A solid card, then, but one that would require an even lower price dip to make economic sense. Benchmarks await below.

1,024 total CUDA cores, 94 ROPs, and 3GB of GDDR5 RAM on board. Yup, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 is indeed a pair of GTX 580 chips spliced together, however power constraints have meant that each of those chips is running at a tamer pace that their single-card variant. The core clock speed is down to 607MHz, shaders are only doing 1.2GHz, and the memory clocks in at 3.4GHz. Still, there's a ton of grunt under that oversized shroud and reviewers have put it to the test against AMD's incumbent single-card performance leader, the Radeon HD 6990. Just like the GTX 590, it sports a pair of AMD's finest GPUs and costs a wallet-eviscerating $699. Alas, after much benchmarking, testing, and staring at extremely beautiful graphics, the conclusion was that AMD retains its title. But only just. And, as Tech Report points out, the GTX 590 has a remarkably quiet cooler for a heavy duty pixel pusher of its kind. Dive into the reviews below to learn more, or check the new card out on video after the break.

In NVIDIA's own words, this Thursday will bring us the company's "next generation, highest performance graphics card." If that has you thinking GeForce GTX 590, you're not alone. The dual-GPU solution was expected to arrive at the PAX East get-together this month but seemed to shyly dodge the limelight, though now there's no escaping its date with destiny. Just make sure to be up nice and early tomorrow, say around 9AM US Eastern Time, for the inevitable barrage of reviews. An unsatisfyingly brief teaser video, featuring Crysis 2 slyly running in the background, can be found after the break.

Update: Whoa, Nelly! Looks like it may end up being the GeForce GTX 590, as evidenced by these leaked images here.

It wasn't that long ago that we were commending ATI on the stellar regularity of its product launches while NVIDIA was floundering, yet now the roles are reversed and we're seeing NVIDIA flesh out its second generation of Fermi products with the midrange GeForce GTX 550 Ti presented today. Its biggest attraction is a $150 price tag, but it makes a major concession in order to reach that pricing plateau -- there are only 192 CUDA cores inside it, equal to the previous-gen GTS 450, but less than the celebrated GTX 460. NVIDIA tries to ameliorate that shortage of parallel processing units by running the ones it has at an aggressive 1800MHz allied to a 900MHz graphics clock speed, and it also throws in a gigabyte of RAM running at an effective rate of 4GHz. That too is constrained somewhat, however, by a 192-bit interface, rather than the wider 256-bit affair on its bigger brother GTX 560 Ti. What all these specs boil down is some decent performance, but few recommendations from reviewers -- mostly due to the abundance of compelling alternatives at nearby price points. Hit up the links below for more.

Why, it was only yesterday that we were eyeballing a dual-GF104 board from Galaxy, presuming it an artifact of a 2010 project that went nowhere, but there's at least one NVIDIA partner that's going to deliver exactly such a creation, and soon at that! EVGA has just set loose the details of a new GTX 460 2Win graphics card, which ticks along at 700MHz, has 672 cumulative CUDA cores served by 2GB of GDDR5, and reportedly collects more 3D Marks than NVIDIA's finest card out at the moment, the GTX 580. The company also gleefully reports that pricing of the 2Win model will be lower than the 580's. It's interesting that NVIDIA is opting for a pair of the older-gen GF104 Fermi chips here, but then again, those have been big winners with critics and price-sensitive gamers alike, with many touting the use of two GTX 460s in SLI as a more sensible solution than the elite single-card options. Well, now you have both, in a manner of speaking. Skip past the break to see EVGA's latest in the flesh.

If you're scoring at home, NVIDIA currently holds the lead in single-GPU graphics cards with its GeForce GTX 580, but ATI's dual-chip Radeon HD 5970 has been holding down the absolute speed crown for a good long while. Now, bearing the name of AMD Radeon HD 6990, its successor sidles up to the throne and demands attention as the fastest single expansion board you can plug into your shiny new motherboard. The 6990 boasts a massive 4GB of GDDR5, 3,072 Stream Processors, 64 ROPs, and an 830MHz core clock speed. A dual-BIOS switch will let you crank that clock up to 880MHz with a corresponding increase in voltage, but don't expect to see much overclocking headroom above that.

Reviewers note, alongside their fawning assessment of the world's best performance, that the HD 6990 is a massively power-hungry card (375W TDP) and one that makes quite a bit of noise while going through its herculean tasks. That's in spite of a new vapor chamber cooling system that allegedly supports up to 450W of thermal output. If all this strikes you as a somewhat flawed execution, maybe you'll join us in hoping NVIDIA's imminently upcoming response, dubbed the GTX 590, will be able to offer a neater, more efficient assault on the extreme peaks of graphical performance.

Yes, NVIDIA's naming scheme really is all over the place, but here's what you need to know: as of today, the fastest mobile GPU coming from Jen-Hsun Huang's team will be the GeForce GTX 485. That chip will be equipped with a 256-bit memory interface and GDDR5 RAM and succeed the GTX 480M as the king of the (relatively) mobile castle. Moving up in numbers, but not performance, the new GT 520M, 525M, 540M, 550M, and 555M represent very mild refreshes of their 400M series counterparts. We were initially unimpressed by NVIDIA's decision to keep things stagnant but for some more aggressive clock speeds at the same TDP envelopes, but a recent review of the earlier-launched GT 540M showed appreciable gains from its predecessor, so maybe these graphics gurus actually know what they're doing.

We've gathered some imagery of early units sporting NVIDIA's new graphics hardware -- notably paired with Intel's Sandy Bridge CPUs -- in the galleries below, but we'll surely have more for you as we explore the halls of CES. After all, NVIDIA has an awesome 200 design wins combining its tech with Intel's latest, there should be plenty of previously unseen hardware for us to find. In the mean time, skip past the break to see a couple of benchmark runs showing off NVIDIA's new graphics processors.
%Gallery-112252%%Gallery-112060%
]]>
40nm500m500m series500mseriesacerasusasus n53sasusn53scesces 2011ces2011directx 11directx11dx 11dx11fermifujitsugeforcegeforce gt 500mgeforcegt500mgfxgpugraphicsgt 500mgt500mgtx 485mgtx485mhands-onlaptop graphicslaptopgraphicslaunchmobile gpumobile graphicsmobilegpumobilegraphicsmsin53snvidiaofficialoptimuspackard bellpackardbellphysxreleasevideoWed, 05 Jan 2011 16:00:00 -050021|19777623https://www.engadget.com/2010/12/07/nvidia-geforce-gtx-570-debuts-the-580-goes-on-a-power-diet-to-f/https://www.engadget.com/2010/12/07/nvidia-geforce-gtx-570-debuts-the-580-goes-on-a-power-diet-to-f/https://www.engadget.com/2010/12/07/nvidia-geforce-gtx-570-debuts-the-580-goes-on-a-power-diet-to-f/#comments

Want to know what the famous act of cutting down a graphics card to match a given price point looks like? Well, here it is, the $349 GTX 580 (aka GeForce GTX 570): it has 480 CUDA cores running at 1464MHz, a 732MHz graphics clock, and 1.25GB of GDDR5 memory hurtling along at an effective rate of 3.8GHz. Each of those specs represents a moderate downgrade from NVIDIA's original 500 series GPU, while the physical construction -- including that vapor chamber cooler -- is almost wholly identical to the 580. Aside from the paintjob, the only difference is that the GTX 570 can live on a pair of 6-pin auxiliary power connectors. The best comparison for the 570, however, turns out to be NVIDIA's former flagship, the GTX 480, as reviewers found the new card's performance to be nearly identical to the old tessellation monster. Verdicts invariably agreed that the 570 is quieter, cooler, and more power-efficient, making it pretty much a no-brainer of a purchase in its price bracket. Of course, every recommendation comes colored with the warning that AMD should finally be unveiling its upper-tier wares next week -- we'd wait the extra few days before parting with our cash.

Uh oh, just as we thought NVIDIA had moved beyond its penchant for rebadging hardware, here comes the vanguard of its 500M mobile GPU series -- which happens to be specced nearly identically to what's already on offer in the 400M family. The GT 540M chip maintains the same 96 CUDA cores and 128-bit memory interface as the GT 435M, but earns its new livery by cranking up graphics and processor clock speeds to 672MHz and 1344MHz, respectively, while also taking the onboard memory to a max speed of 900MHz. Power requirements have been kept unchanged, mind you, and NVIDIA itself admits it's exploiting the maturation of the production process to just throw out some speedier parts. China gets the GT 540M immediately, courtesy of Acer, while the rest of the world should be able to buy in at some point next month. Jump past the break for the full press release.

Update: We've managed to track down the particular Acer model that'll mark the GT 540M's debut, it's called the Aspire 4741G. The option we saw came equipped with a 2.66GHz Intel Core i5-480M processor, 4GB of RAM, a 640GB HDD, a Blu-ray disc drive, and a 14-inch screen up top. There's not much, aside from the new top cover design, to really distinguish this from the rest of Acer's Aspire line, with the keyboard in particular being the very same one that we've witnessed on Timeline series machines for over a year now -- comfortable, well spaced, but exhibiting quite a bit of flex around the Enter key. See more of it in the gallery below.
%Gallery-109305%
]]>
40nm4741g500m500m series500mseries540maceraspirechinadirectx 11directx11geforcegeforce gt 540mgeforcegt540mgfxgpugraphicsgraphics cardgraphicscardhands-onlaptoplaptop graphicslaptopgraphicsmobile graphicsmobilegraphicsnvidianvidia optimusnvidiaoptimusoptimusSun, 05 Dec 2010 22:33:00 -050021|19747248https://www.engadget.com/2010/11/09/nvidia-geforce-gtx-580-reviewed-what-the-gtx-480-should-have-b/https://www.engadget.com/2010/11/09/nvidia-geforce-gtx-580-reviewed-what-the-gtx-480-should-have-b/https://www.engadget.com/2010/11/09/nvidia-geforce-gtx-580-reviewed-what-the-gtx-480-should-have-b/#comments

You saw the key specs slip out a little ahead of time, now it's the moment we've all been waiting for: the GeForce GTX 580 has been thoroughly benchmarked to see if its claim to being "the world's fastest DirectX 11 GPU" stands up to scrutiny. In short, yes it does. The unanimous conclusion reached among the reviewers was that the 580 cranks up the performance markedly relative to the GTX 480 -- with some citing gains between 10 and 20 percent and others finding up to 30 percent improvements -- while power draw, heat emissions, and noise were lowered across the board. ATI's AMD's Radeon HD 5870 wasn't completely crushed by the newcomer, but it was consistently behind NVIDIA's latest pixel pusher. Priced at $499, the GTX 580 is actually praised for offering good value, though its TDP of 244W might still require you to upgrade a few parts inside your rig to accommodate it, while current online prices are closer to $550. Anyhow, the pretty comparative bar charts await at the links below.

A quick refresher: Bobcat is AMD's low-power Accelerated Processing Unit that can handle both computational and graphical duties, Ontario and Zacate are the chips built upon that core, and Brazos is the overall platform that they'll be doing their work on. Clear enough? We hope so. AMD has finally allowed a few tech pubs to get their hands on Brazos-based systems and, along with feedback about their experience, the guys have come back with some added spec notes. There'll be two initial Zacate options, the dual-core E-350 running at 1.6GHz or the single-core E-240 clocked at 1.5GHz, while Ontario will offer 1GHz dual-core and 1.2GHz single-core variants. Let's not forget that both are intended for netbooks and lithe desktop computers before writing them off as too slow -- which would be a mistake anyway as the sites that got a chance to play with the E-350 reported very respectable performance. HardOCP dared to try out Crysis and managed to get it chugging along at a resolution around 720p, whereas Hot Hardware witnessed a 1080p video clip being played back perfectly smoothly alongside an instance of Hyper Pi maxing out the CPU load. Benchmark results will have to wait for another day, but feel free to peruse the links below for a more detailed breakdown of the new architecture.
]]>
40nmaccelerated processing unitacceleratedprocessingunitamdamd bobcatamd c-30amd c-50amd e-240amd e-350amdbobcatamdc-30amdc-50amde-240amde-350apubobcatbrazosc-30c-50cpue-240e-350efficientfusionfusion apufusionapulow-powerontarioprocessorsmallsneak peeksneakpeekteaseteasertinyvideozacateTue, 09 Nov 2010 01:37:00 -050021|19708583https://www.engadget.com/2010/10/23/nvidia-lists-unannounced-gtx-580-graphics-card-on-its-page-quic/https://www.engadget.com/2010/10/23/nvidia-lists-unannounced-gtx-580-graphics-card-on-its-page-quic/https://www.engadget.com/2010/10/23/nvidia-lists-unannounced-gtx-580-graphics-card-on-its-page-quic/#comments

What's this, a bit of intrigue from NVIDIA? The company is due for a refresh on its DirectX 11 line and, with AMD's Cayman series floating its way to availability on crystal-clear waters, the competition appears to be teasing its response. NVIDIA briefly listed a card called the GTX 580 on its System Requirements page and, while we don't know how long it was there, it was quickly pulled after news of its presence started making the rounds. Accidental addition or the intentional planting of a seed of doubt in the minds of AMD fans? We'll never know, and we don't know the details of the card either, but expectations are that it contains 40nm construction with 512 CUDA cores, 2GB of GDDR5 memory, and a due date before the end of the year. That should give you plenty of time to upgrade your power supply... again.

The graphics card that doesn't require a fridge-sized cooler is turning into something of a rarity nowadays, but we doubt the market for quiet, efficient, and halfway-decent GPUs is ever going to disappear completely. NVIDIA is fleshing out its Fermi family today with a creature that aspires to such epithets, the 96 CUDA core-equipped GT 430. It's a patently humble GPU, as indicated by its $79.99 typical price, 49W TDP, 5.7-inch board length, and single-slot cooler design. Mind you, while those are typically considered positives, they do limit gaming performance quite significantly, with the GT 430 getting roundly beaten by ATI's (sob!) AMD's similarly priced Radeon HD 5670. So what niche is left for this card? Well, it's an upgrade over integrated graphics and it gets you on the 3D bandwagon, but on the whole we're left scratching our voluminous craniums as to why anyone would dodge AMD's more accomplished hardware for NVIDIA's latest. Hit up the reviews below and form your own opinion, if our one doesn't suit your outfit today.

Alright AMD, we still haven't forgiven you for burying the glorious name that was ATI, but if your next GPU refresh is as mighty as these numbers indicate, we might at least let you in from the doghouse. A slide detailing two flavors of the upcoming 40nm Barts chip has sprouted up from two independent sources online, and it shows some appreciable gains between generations. The new HD 67x0 cards appear manifestly speedier than their predecessors -- with faster clocks, more texture units, and more ROPs -- but the fun really gets going when you compare them to the HD 5870 and 5850, AMD's previous high-end cards. Memory bandwidth and pixel fillrate are identical between the HD 6750 and 5850, while the HD 6770 even manages to beat the formerly imperious 5870 in a couple of areas. Of course, this is all still unconfirmed information, but considering that Barts is only an "upper midrange" chip that's already stepping on the toes of last year's finest, we feel safe in expecting some pretty big things from the flagship Cayman silicon when it lands -- which will be soon if all these leaks and rumors are anything to go by.

Say hello to NVIDIA's GF106 core (please pretend you've never met before). The company's third Fermi desktop iteration is described as "a little more than half of the GF104 implementation," which in real terms means 192 CUDA cores versus the GTX 460's 336, reduced memory bandwidth with a 128-bit-wide bus and a lower number of ROPs at 16. These disadvantages are ameliorated by 783MHz graphics and 1566MHz processor clock speeds as well as a much more forgiving power profile -- the new GTS 450 cards will require just the one 6-pin power connector for auxiliary juice. Pricing is aimed squarely at conquering the market currently occupied by ATI's HD 5750, which, as we saw over the weekend, plants the 450 around the $130 mark. You'll have to read the reviews below for confirmation, but NVIDIA promises "awesome" overclocking headroom on its new card, going as far as to suggest stable 900MHz graphics clocks aren't out of the realm of possibility.

If somehow you were able to choke up the FirePro V8800 and its 2GB of graphics buffer -- traveling across an autobahn-wide 147.2GBps interface -- here's the card for you. ATI has just announced the V9800, which doubles its predecessor's memory allowance to a mighty 4GB of GDDR5, but otherwise looks an almost identical beast. It maintains the 1,600 stream processor count of the V8800 and makes some small advances in performance and power efficiency, but on the whole it's the same card, just strapped up with more buffer muscle. We shouldn't neglect the new array of six mini DisplayPorts -- the retail package will include six DVI adapters, worry not -- which will let you have your full six-screen Eyefinity cake driven by just this one card. So, is this future collector's item worth your time? Well, at $3,499, the V9800 is a whole two thousand dollars pricier than the V8800, but then if you have the highly specialized needs it's looking to cater for, we're guessing that won't be too much of a hurdle for you.

Update: Oh, about the price, AMD just got in touch to say it'll suggest a $3,499 tithe, not the $2.5K indicated on the slide below. Sorry is we misled you into selling up your entire 3D rendering farm with the lower price we had before.
]]>
40nmamdatiati fireproati firepro v9800atifireproatifireprov9800crossfire procrossfireprocypressdirectx 11directx11evergreeneyefinityfireprofirepro v9800fireprov9800gpugraphicsgraphics cardgraphicscardhardwarehigh endhighendmini displayportminidisplayportpro graphicsprofessionalprographicsv9800workstationThu, 09 Sep 2010 07:45:00 -040021|19626476https://www.engadget.com/2010/09/07/asus-upgrades-g53-and-g73-gaming-laptops-with-1-5gb-nvidia-gtx-4/https://www.engadget.com/2010/09/07/asus-upgrades-g53-and-g73-gaming-laptops-with-1-5gb-nvidia-gtx-4/https://www.engadget.com/2010/09/07/asus-upgrades-g53-and-g73-gaming-laptops-with-1-5gb-nvidia-gtx-4/#comments

Ready to splash the cash on NVIDIA's fresh new mobile Fermi graphics cards? ASUS is the first company to take the veils off its GTX 460M offering, which it has seasoned with a most welcome addition: 1.5GB of dedicated GDDR5 graphics memory. The ROG G53JW and G73JW machines are the beneficiaries of this upgrade, with both capable of 3D work should you ask them nicely, and offering such tasty options as quad-core Core i7 CPUs, up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM, 750GB of storage, 16:9 displays (1,366 x 768 on the 15.6-inch G53 and up to 1,920 x 1,080 on the 17.3-inch G73), Blu-ray-writing optical drives, and 8-cell 5,200mAh batteries. The lighter of the two laptops weighs in at 3.6kg, but if that doesn't put you off, both are available right now at online retailers.

Not everybody needs the world's fastest mobile GPU, so NVIDIA is sagely trickling down its Fermi magic to more affordable price points today. The 400M family is being fleshed out with five new midrange parts -- GT 445M, GT 435M, GT 425M, GT 420M and GT 415M, to give them their gorgeous names -- and a pair of heavy hitters known as the GTX 470M and GTX 460M. Features shared across the new range include a 40nm fab process, DirectX 11, CUDA general-purpose computing skills, PhysX, and Optimus graphics switching. 3D Vision and 3DTV Play support will be available on all but the lowest two variants. NVIDIA claims that, on average, the 400M graphics cards are 40 percent faster than their 300M series counterparts, and since those were rebadges of the 200M series, we're most definitely willing to believe that assertion. Skip past the break for all the vital statistics, and look out for almost all (HP is a notable absentee, while Apple is a predictable one) the big-time laptop vendors to have gear bearing the 4xxM insignia soon.
]]>
3d vision3dtv play3dtvplay3dvision400m400m series400mseries40nmcudadirectx 11directx11fermigeforcegeforce gtx 460mgeforce gtx 470mgeforcegtx460mgeforcegtx470mgfxgpugraphicsgt 415mgt 420mgt 425mgt 435mgt 445mgt415mgt420mgt425mgt435mgt445mgtx 460mgtx 470mgtx460mgtx470mlaunchmobile gpumobile graphicsmobilegpumobilegraphicsnvidianvidia ferminvidia optimusnvidiaferminvidiaoptimusoptimusphysxFri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -040021|19618938https://www.engadget.com/2010/07/28/hp-crams-fermi-based-quadro-5000m-gpu-inside-17-inch-elitebook/https://www.engadget.com/2010/07/28/hp-crams-fermi-based-quadro-5000m-gpu-inside-17-inch-elitebook/https://www.engadget.com/2010/07/28/hp-crams-fermi-based-quadro-5000m-gpu-inside-17-inch-elitebook/#comments

Gotta live up to the name, right HP? NVIDIA's new pro graphics solution for mobile creatives, the Quadro 5000M, was unsheathed only yesterday but HP appears to have been first in line to get some of that new 40nm goodness. Electronista reports that the world leader in PC shipments is readying a 5000M solution for its 8740w EliteBook, which will bring 320 CUDA cores and a jumbo 2GB of dedicated memory to the party. That comes replete with the latest DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.1 compatibility, naturally, as well as a bunch of pro-friendly computational enhancements. Dell's also going to be offering a 5000M-equipped rig, but lest you get too excited, bear in mind that getting the current best Quadro-equipped 17-incher from HP costs north of $3,000, so affordability is clearly not a priority here. Skip past the break for NVIDIA's joyous press release announcing the new Quadro chips.
]]>
40nm5000m8740wdelldirectx 11directx11elitebookelitebook 8740welitebook8740wfermigfxgraphicsgraphics cardgraphicscardhphp elitebookhpelitebooklaptoplaptop graphicslaptopgraphicsmobile graphicsmobile workstationmobilegraphicsmobileworkstationnvidiaopengl 4.1opengl4.1professionalquadroworkstationworkstation graphicsworkstationgraphicsWed, 28 Jul 2010 04:37:00 -040021|19571362https://www.engadget.com/2010/07/17/tsmc-begins-construction-of-new-9-3b-foundry-wants-to-sate-our/https://www.engadget.com/2010/07/17/tsmc-begins-construction-of-new-9-3b-foundry-wants-to-sate-our/https://www.engadget.com/2010/07/17/tsmc-begins-construction-of-new-9-3b-foundry-wants-to-sate-our/#comments

TSMC might not necessarily be a household name, but the product of its labors tends to be all over home electronics. Aiming to keep that trend going, the Taiwanese chipmaker has just broken ground on its third 300mm wafer plant, located in Taichung's Central Taiwan Science Park. The new Fab 15 will have a capacity of over 100,000 wafers per month -- earning it the prestige of being described as a Gigafab -- and once operational it'll create 8,000 new skilled jobs in the area. Semiconductors built there will also be suitably modern, with 40nm and 28nm production facilities being installed, and lest you worry about such trivial things as the environment, TSMC says it's doing a few things to minimize the foundry's energy usage and greenhouse gas emission. Then again, if you're going to spend nearly $10 billion on something, would you expect anything less?
]]>
28nm40nmcapacitychipsconstructionexpansionfab 15fab15fabricationfacilityfactoryfoundrygigafabgroundbreakinginvestmentmanufacturingplantproductionproduction facilityproductionfacilitysemiconductorsemiconductorstaiwantsmcwaferwafersSat, 17 Jul 2010 10:17:00 -040021|19558276https://www.engadget.com/2010/07/12/nvidia-geforce-gtx-460-becomes-everyones-favorite-midrange-grap/https://www.engadget.com/2010/07/12/nvidia-geforce-gtx-460-becomes-everyones-favorite-midrange-grap/https://www.engadget.com/2010/07/12/nvidia-geforce-gtx-460-becomes-everyones-favorite-midrange-grap/#comments

It's rare to come across a universally lauded product nowadays, but NVIDIA's fresh new GTX 460 is just that sort of exceptional creation. Contrary to its GTX 465 elder brother, the 460 isn't a chopped-down top-tier part and is instead built on the new GF104 core. This smaller core, designed from the start to perform humbler functions, has ameliorated the famed power inefficiency that has been a Fermi signature so far, and has resulted in AnandTech describing the new card as "the $200 king." You'll get 768MB of onboard RAM at that point, but we'd splurge an extra $30 to make that a round gigabyte and enjoy some extra L2 cache and ROPs on the card. Either way, the GTX 460 seems to have completely killed off the market for the 465 and is stepping all over ATI's toes with its competitive pricing and, for once, decent heat and power metrics. Oh, and apparently it "overclocks like a monster" too -- hit the links below for the full reviews.

Read - AnandTechRead - HardOCPRead - Hot HardwareRead - Tom's HardwareRead - PC PerspectiveRead - Bit-techRead - Guru 3DRead - Legit Reviews
]]>
40nmbang for buckbangforbuckbenchmarksdirectx 11directx11fermigeforcegf104gtx 460gtx460nvidiareviewreview roundupreviewroundupreviewsroundupvalueMon, 12 Jul 2010 03:03:00 -040021|19549995https://www.engadget.com/2010/06/17/nvidia-geforce-gtx-480m-reviewed-fastest-mobile-gpu-to-date/https://www.engadget.com/2010/06/17/nvidia-geforce-gtx-480m-reviewed-fastest-mobile-gpu-to-date/https://www.engadget.com/2010/06/17/nvidia-geforce-gtx-480m-reviewed-fastest-mobile-gpu-to-date/#commentsIt's one thing to have a product called the world's fastest on paper, but it's another thing entirely to have the benchmarks confirm it. NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 480M has been swooned over for months now, but it just recently hit the hardcore review sites in a big way. Frankly, there's not a whole lot to say about the thing at this point: it's simply the fastest mobile GPU to date, with Hot Hardware finding it to be "significantly faster in nearly all gaming benchmarks," with just one title showing the Mobility Radeon HD 5870 as the champ by only a few frames. If you've been searching for the fastest mobile GPU in town, you're wasting your time looking any harder; 'course, all of that power consumes an insane level of energy, so true road warriors will certainly want to look elsewhere. Critics pointed out that energy consumption and excess heat were real issues, though both of those are easily overlooked when you're able to take a beastly laptop to a LAN party rather than your desktop. Give those links below a visit if you still need proof.
]]>
40nmcudadirectx 11directx11fermigeforce gtx 480mgeforcegtx480mgf100gpugraphicsgraphics cardgraphicscardgtx 480mgtx480mlaptop graphicslaptopgraphicsmobile gpumobile graphicsmobilegpumobilegraphicsnvidianvidia geforce gtx 480mnvidiageforcegtx480mtesselationworlds fastestworldsfastestThu, 17 Jun 2010 13:03:00 -040021|19520135https://www.engadget.com/2010/05/31/nvidia-geforce-gtx-465-rounds-up-some-positive-reviews/https://www.engadget.com/2010/05/31/nvidia-geforce-gtx-465-rounds-up-some-positive-reviews/https://www.engadget.com/2010/05/31/nvidia-geforce-gtx-465-rounds-up-some-positive-reviews/#comments

Well, it's not quite June 1, but the GeForce GTX 465 reviews have come flooding out all the same. The official specs are exactly as a recent leak indicated: 352 CUDA cores running at 1,215MHz, a 607MHz graphics clock, and 1GB of GDDR5 memory operating at a 3.2GHz effective rate and exploiting a 256 bit-wide interface. With an MSRP of $279.99, this Fermi-lite GPU scored plenty of admiration for the value it offers, with one reviewer going so far as to call it "quite possibly the most powerful DirectX 11 graphics card for under $300." Others weren't so enthusiastic, citing the far cheaper HD 5830 from ATI as a better choice, but it's true enough that the next best GPU, the HD 5850, tends to be at least $30 more expensive than the 465, depending on brand. You'll want to delve into the game benchmark numbers in order to make up your mind about which card might make for the best bit, but be warned that NVIDIA's 465 retains the GTX tradition of ravenous power consumption -- something to consider if you're rolling along with an old school 400W PSU in your rig.

NVIDIA has just announced that the GTX 480M, the mobile re-spin of its extravagantly overpowered Fermi desktop parts, will be arriving in the middle of next month. Touted as the world's fastest mobile graphics processor, this chip will bring 352 CUDA cores and a 256-bit memory interface to up to 2GB of GDDR5 RAM. These are clear and convincing advances over the incumbent Green Team leader, the 360M, but things start to look a little worrying when we check the 480M's clock speeds. The processor speed is nearly halved from the desktop GTX 480, at 850MHz, the memory does only 1,200MHz, and the graphics run at 425MHz -- we didn't know anything worthwhile even operated below 500MHz these days. Either way, you're getting a computing powerhouse, with the 480M's 897 gigaflops comfortably dwarfing its predecessor's 413 and promising almighty tessellation performance. What it all means with regard to keeping your frame rates up while traversing the Terminus Systems, we can't yet say. We'll let the benchmarking gurus figure it out -- go past the break for the full press release and spec sheet.
]]>
40nmcudadirectx 11directx11fermigeforce gtx 480mgeforcegtx480mgf100gpugraphicsgraphics cardgraphicscardgtx 480mgtx480mlaptop graphicslaptopgraphicsmobile gpumobile graphicsmobilegpumobilegraphicsnvidianvidia geforce gtx 480mnvidiageforcegtx480mtesselationworlds fastestworldsfastestTue, 25 May 2010 09:00:00 -040021|19490118